Giving 'brave' LR Nine medals gets Senate nod

SUSAN ROTH
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

WASHINGTON -- The Senate agreed unanimously late Wednesday to award Congressional Gold Medals to the nine black students who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., who proposed the legislation, hailed the honor as long overdue.
"Those nine young black children who were escorted into that school in the fall of 1957 by paratroopers from the 101st Airborne showed more bravery than anybody I have ever seen in my life," Bumpers said on the floor of the Senate. "It was a very ominous, terrifying time."
The medal is the civilian equivalent of the Medal of Honor, which is also given by Congress. Its award must also be approved by the House. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has introduced a bill to do that, and the Arkansas congressional delegation has signed on as co-sponsors.
The nine former students are Melba Pattillo Beals, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Carlotta Walls LaNier, Terrence Roberts, Jefferson Thomas, Minnijean Brown Trickey and Thelma Mothershed Wair.
According to the bill, the Little Rock Nine deserve the medals because:

They voluntarily subjected themselves to racial bigotry.

They are civil-rights pioneers whose selfless acts considerably advanced the nation's civil-rights debate.

They risked their lives to integrate Central High School and subsequently the nation.

They "sacrificed their innocence to protect the American principle that we are all one nation, under God, indivisible."

They have "indelibly left their mark on the history of this nation."

They have continued to work toward equality for all Americans.
Since the 40th anniversary of the crisis, marked in Little Rock last September, Bumpers has also introduced legislation to name Central High a National Historic Site and to fund planning and development of such a site.
A Senate subcommittee held a hearing last week on the National Historic Site bill and is scheduled to vote on it next week. The designation would bring money and technical assistance from the National Park Service to improve and maintain the Central High Visitor Center established across the street from the school last fall.
Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., recently introduced companion legislation in the House, with other members of the Arkansas House delegation as co-sponsors. The bill is in the House Committee on Resources.
A Bumpers bill to spend $300,000 on planning and development for the site passed the Senate Appropriations Committee last month.

This article was published on Friday, July 17, 1998

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